


The 12 Days of Jersey

by alemara, wanderlustlover



Series: 12 Days of Jersey [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Jersey, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/pseuds/alemara, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/pseuds/wanderlustlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starting on Christmas morning Laura and Amanda will be bringing you The 12 Days of Jersey. A 100-word prompt every morning and evening for the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25th, 2012 to January 5th, 2013) detailing Christmas in Jersey, across several years.</p><p> </p><p>Dedicating evening prompts to Paula, who is my H50 Tumblr Secret Santa recipient. -- Wanderlustlover</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. and above all this bustle, you'll hear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alemara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/gifts), [wanderlustlover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/gifts), [Paula](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paula/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Really, I can't warn you enough  
>  **Song:** _Silver Bells_  
>  **Year:** The First

“What happened to ‘prepared for anything’?”

“I thought you said I wasn’t allowed to develop tactics for your family. ‘It’s not a warzone,’ you said. ‘No strategic ops,’ you said.” Muffled by the hug he’s getting from a sister-in-law he doesn’t know, while Mrs. Williams divests him of hat and scarf, tutting at the coat he’d chosen.

“Why rob you of this experience with a warning? _We_ never got one.”

“You’ll pay for this.”

“Sorry,” Danny calls, unapologetically smug, somewhere out of reach, beyond the crowd. “Can’t hear you. You’re gonna have to speak up while you’re here.”


	2. Only Splendor For the Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Evergreens vs. Palms  
>  **Song:** _Oh Christmas Tree_  
>  **Year:** The First

“So, you put lights on palm trees?” Mrs. William questioned, gently.

“Danny told us,” Clara, the Aunt, said from behind him. “He says it’s a tragedy.” 

Steve rolled his eyes, fond, toward Danny and the pile of grandkids testing tree heights and branches. “Everything in Hawaii is a tragedy to Danny.” 

“Maybe not everything,” mumbled someone the other side of Clara.

“It’s the same as backyard trees here,” Steve went on, flawlessly. “Every year I ever had a tree indoors, it was an artificial balsam.” 

“Don’t you worry, dear,” Clara consoled. “You’ll see what a real evergreen looks like this year.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Side note_ : I found when researching the original Danno that the only family member mentioned for him in the original Hawaii Five-0 was his Aunt Clara. Thus, consider this my head tip and respects to the original show even here.


	3. that's when those blue memories start calling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Guest bedroom  
>  **Song:** _Blue Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The First

Danny doesn’t say whose room this is, but the evidence stacks up without words.

A boy’s room, blues and plaids. Neat, with a quiet emptiness. Bare shelves in a house loud with family photos.

Then there’s the way Danny hangs back in the doorway, hands pushed into pockets, shoulders relaxed but toes never crossing the threshold.

Steve pretends he doesn’t notice, slings his duffel onto the quilt, eyebrows skeptical, mouth amused. “Twin bed?”

“I thought we could maybe save scandalizing everyone for another time.” Retorted, but he’s smiling. Better, steps in, only barely pausing, so Steve calls it a win.


	4. Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Gracie, The Snow Angel  
>  **Lyrics:** _Snow_ (From White Christmas)  
>  **Year:** First or Second Year

“Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve, watch me!” Grace called, before turning, braids with Christmas ribbons flapping over her shoulder, and throwing herself in the snow.

Her feet and arms moving fast, to show him how make an angel.

“She’s certainly taken with you.”

Steve’s head turned sharp to one side. One of Danny’s sisters, bundled with a steaming mug of chocolate. Smiling as she watched him, while Steve looked back to Grace.

“It’s okay, you can say it's mutual, Steve.” Nudged his arm with a shorter shoulder, like it was normal. Sparky teasing tone. “We think the world of her, too.”


	5. but the prettiest sight to see

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** SEALS and squealing children  
>  **Song:** _It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The Second

Steve's vanished somewhere under a pile of squirming winter coats. “Kids,” says Clara, passing, hidden under a platter of cookies. “Commander McGarrett isn’t a playset.”

Danny’s not sure he agrees. Steve stands, one cousin on his back, another clinging to an arm, giggling as her toes leave the ground. Smile flashing from under the melee like a spotlight.

“Who wants to learn to build a defensible snowfort?” he asks, immediately drowned by enthusiastic shrieks. Something crashes. Danny winces.

“Outside, please,” Mrs. Williams calls. The mass lurches toward the door, with “c’mon, Danno,” wheedling. Head shaking, he follows. 

“You’re doomed, babe.”


	6. and so this is Christmas (War is over, if you want it)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Snowball Fight  
>  **Lyrics:** _Happy Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The Second

“Weakness are to be exploited. Know your opponent. Predict their moves.“

“Hey, G.I. Crazy, this isn’t how you teach kids to snowball fight,” Danny said from the step, thick jacket clad, with a new scarf and gloves.

“Navy,” Steve corrected, rolling his eyes. “You think you can do better?”

“I know I can.” He walked forward, hands opening. “Okay, listen up, kids, first you—“

**_THWACK._ **

A snowball pegged Danny, crumbling off the dark jacket. Steve grinning manic, the kids gaping back to him. “Also, don’t ever let your guard down.”

“Oh, now it’s on,” Danny said, scooping up snow.


	7. What is Christmas with no snow?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Snowfall  
>  **Song:** _Snow_ (White Christmas)  
>  **Year:** The Second

It begins while they’re out finding the last few things for Grace’s stocking: fat, thick flakes, sifting to the ground in silence. Newark’s hard gray edges softening. Cars disappear into muffling drifts, thickly frosted and cartoonish. Windows glow, warm, yellow light spilling into flakes like feathers floating. Everything pale, sparkling, no jewel-bright sunlit glow of water to be seen; ceruleans, hothouse-green traded for gingerbread house sugared trimming.

It sticks to Steve’s boots, melts in the hall as he tries to scrape it off, balancing awkward, while Danny complains about driving and brushes off Steve’s coat, grinning and protesting at once.


	8. ...and presents under the tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Presents for Steve  
>  **Lyrics:** _I'll Be Home For Christmas_  
>  **Year** The First

Steve gestured with a tip of his chin toward the tree, after everyone else had said their goodnights. “Danny, there’s a gift for me.” Unspoken in his head was the rest. That it wasn’t from Danny.

“Actually there’re probably six or seven in there, a stocking, too,” Danny said waving, toward the explosion of shiny paper in every shape, color, bow, and ribbon.

“Six or—“ Steven looked back, checking that he’d heard anything right.

Danny, almost to laughing already, smiled incredulously smug. “You didn’t think you were the only person grilling me for gift tips did you, you goof?”


	9. from the land where palm trees sway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Gag gifts.  
>  **Song:** _Mele Kalikimaka_  
>  **Year:** The Third.

Everyone’s laughing at the sour face Danny pulls, eying his strangely bulging, spiky stocking, and Steve, who is the picture of innocence.

“I can’t believe you brought a pineapple through airport security just to ruin my Christmas,” he complains.

Butter wouldn’t melt in Steve’s carefully noncommittal mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Danno. Who says it was me?”

“Mele Kalikimaka!” cries Grace, merrily sticking a bow on her father’s head.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” he says, to no one in particular, and lets it go, only to groan when fresh slices turn up at brunch in the morning.


	10. keep it cookin’ in the pot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** The perfect cup of hot cocoa (it’s a delicate process, STEVEN.)  
>  **Lyrics:** _Hot Chocolate_ (from Polar Express)  
>  **Year:** The First

“No!” and “Stop!” and “Hey!” and “Wait!” all happened at once. Half the kitchen converging on him, making his shoulder muscles tense on trained reflex.

“You can’t do that yet,” Grace corrected Steve, hand out, expectantly, for the cinnamon and cayenne bottles. “We have to wait for the chocolate to turn soupy–thick first.”

“Jeez, Danny, you haven’t even taught him how to make cocoa? You tryin’ to make him ruin the best part of tonight?” 

“Woah, hold on a minute,” Danny sputtered at his brother-in-law, hands full of half-dead lights at the kitchen table. “He is definitely not _my_ fault.”


	11. Through the years we all will be together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** The best gift  
>  **Song:** _Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The Third or Fourth.

“Right there, I see an empty spot.”

“Where?” Grace, perched on Steve’s shoulders, sways as she searches through laden branches, a feathery bird ornament dangling carefully from one hand.

Danny feels his sister join him on the couch, without looking away from the pair debating spacial reasoning and optimal ornament placement. “He’s good with her,” she offers, handing over a mug of cocoa, and he nods.

“She’s good with _him_.”

“You, too.” When he does look, she’s the one watching them, a little smile curving over her mug edge, elbow nudging him gently. “Drink your cocoa, Danny, it’s getting cold.”


	12. Angels we Have Heard on High

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** The obnoxiousness of carolers  
>  **Song:** _Angels we Have Heard on High_  
>  **Year:** The Second

“Aren’t they done yet?” Steve hissed, quietly, from somewhere near enough to right behind Danny, except that he hadn’t given over and put a hand on Danny’s side.

Everyone knew now, but, like home, that didn’t change much of how Steve acted outwardly, especially grouped at the door. Which Danny, apparently, never got the memo for. Not on the job, with their friends, or his family.

Because he leaned back, shoulders hitting Steve’s chest, whispering. “Nah, they’ve got at least three or four to go still, and that’s only if mom doesn’t invite them in for hot chocolate and cookies.”


	13. 'cause I just want you here tonight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** First shared room  
>  **Song:** _All I Want For Christmas Is You_  
>  **Year:** The Second

Same blues, same plaids. A riot of wrapping paper and ribbon brightens the desk in one corner, and candles glow in the windows, but Steve is looking, bemused, at the other end of the room, where Danny is unpacking.

“Danny?”

Who shrugs, tossing his snow-damp coat onto the second twin pushed up against the first. “You think they somehow managed to stay fooled, last year?”

Steve shifts, awkward. “Not _fooled_...”

“Where do you think I got my gut instincts from?” Danny jerks his head, tipping an invitation to stop hovering in the doorway. “Mom’s a better cop than I am.”


	14. and so I sing for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Parental Blessings  
>  **Song:** _Driving Home for Christmas_  
>  **Year:** Maybe Fourth or Fifth

“Now, Steven, you know you don’t have to keep doing this,” she was already saying, while one hand was pulling his scarf to get him low enough to kiss the cheek of, and the other was already taking the flowers from him. 

“I’d do it for my mother or sister if I was beating down their door,” he says, still smiling. Being manhandled by more Williams’, that’s Christmas tradition, too.

So is the way Danny’s mother turns, and shouts back to the pack of them in the living room watching hockey, “All you other ingrates, out! I’m only keeping this one.”


	15. voices singing ‘let’s be jolly’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Family dinner.  
>  **Song:** _Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree_  
>  **Year:** The First.

Steve’s frowning already. “Danny.”

“Hmm?”

“There are four different sauces.”

Danny peers, points to one. “Turkey gravy. The others are for the ham.”

Steve squeezes against the table as a nephew pushes by, followed by a brother-in-law. “Don’t you think that’s overkill?”

Danny shrugs, already pushing his way towards the long dinner table, set with wedding china and glimmering gently amid the chaos. “Can’t help this family is full of picky eaters. _Ow_ ,” as a sister smacks his arm, before he waves at Steve. “Come on, I saved you a seat, but it won’t last long. Savages, all of them.”


	16. let your heart be light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt** : The Best Christmas Movie  
>  **Song** : _Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas_  
>  **Year** : The First (Previous to reveal, siblings are the best)

Steve wasn’t surprised when Danny fell asleep halfway through _Love Actually_ , after purposely losing a thumb war to his baby sister, while complaining about it being a cliché sappy holiday chick flick.

He was surprised though when Danny’s sleep-listing into his shoulder had turned into nudge-fighting getting under his arm. Leaving Steve ram-rod still, while Danny snuffled a temple against his neck, a hand on his thigh.

Even more surprising was catching her watching them, minutes later. Pleased smile widening when she caught Steve’s eye, before she raised a finger to her lips and went back to watching the movie.


	17. we'll frolic and play the Eskimo way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Hockey Hero, bitch.  
>  **Song:** _Winter Wonderland_  
>  **Year:** The First.

“Ouch,” observes one brother-in-law.

Another shakes his head, _I-told-you-so_ angle to his eyebrows. “That was rough.” Louder, pointed. “Told you he’s got the record.”

“Maybe we should have warned him?” A nephew, young enough to still feel compassion for newcomers to the family.

Steve’s ignoring them, eying Danny. “Finally, your height’s actually an advantage. Lower center of gravity, it’s easier on skates.”

Danny grins, snaking his way easily backwards, breath fogging in the cold. Gleaming lines spool from his blades in parallel curves. He taps his hockey stick against the ice. 

“Excuses. C’mon, super SEAL. Best two out of three.”


	18. the sturdy kind, that doesn’t mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Steve helping trim the tree  
>  **Song:** _It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christas_  
>  **Year** The First

“It’s crooked.”

“And too tall.”

“I like it.”

“St—no, it’ll crush the angel.”

“Try turning it to the left? Maybe a foot?”

“That won’t change it being two inches from the ceiling.”

“Then someone go get the chainsaw, already, and stop jabbering.”

“Man after my own heart,” Steve laughed. Acting human tree stand, for the opinionated William’s collective, less than three hours after arriving.

“Think you can get her down and hold her still for me, son?” Mr. Williams asked, still focused on the bottom of the tree.

“Yes, sir.” Was flawless fast and unwavering, even buried in branches.


	19. just like the ones I used to know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Christmas past  
>  **Song:** _White Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The First.

She’s watching jewel-colored lights twinkle in dark branches, expression thoughtful. Danny shoots a look at Steve, leaning against a wall.

“We used to have white lights.” 

“Yeah, I remember.” 

“Mommy uses them, still.”

“Does she?” He doesn’t see Steve shift, but that focus is sharpening, so he keeps his voice easy. “Well, tell you what. These are like the ones from when _I_ was a kid. Only tinier and less prone to bursting into flame, no matter how hard Uncle Steve tries.”

She considers. Finally, decided: “I like them.”

Hands fly up, teasing. “Thank the Lord, the lights can stay.”


	20. Friends scatter, it won’t matter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Meeting Old Friends  
>  **Song:** Old Time Christmas  
>  **Year:** Every single one

It’s nothing like Hawaii. Not that he expects it to be.

Not from the moment Danny gets off the phone beaming like a child given permission to go play with long lost friends come to visit. Even when it is the other way around.

They’re loud, brash and they eye Steve as speculatively as smile readily at Danny, clapping him on the shoulder, razing him about a dozen stories Steve knows nothing of.

Dragging half of them out, between gulps of beer and great rounds of laughter, that turn the tips of Danny’s ears red, but he never stops smiling.


	21. ...and joyful memories there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** What Christmas means to me.  
>  **Song:** _Christmastime is Here_  
>  **Year:** The Second or Third.

“Presents!”

“Typical. Ma?”

“Having everyone home,” she says, beaming, and then laughs. “As long I don’t have to touch the dishes.”

“Classic.” He nudges a sister. “You?”

“Me?” She nudges right back. “What about _you?_ You’re the one we haven’t seen. What brought you back to the ancestral home?”

“A plane.”

“Cute, Danny.”

He shrugs, waves a lazy hand, fingertips brushing Steve’s arm, where he’s sitting nearby, grinning. “Yeah, Danno. What’s your favorite part of Christmas?”

_That stupid smile._ “Being in the bosom of my family. Obviously. Aren’t they charming?”

Steve knocks his hand lightly, tangles their fingers. “The best.”


	22. wild and sweet the words repeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Family ornaments  
>  **Song:** _I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day_  
>  **Year:** The Second

“This is beautiful, Grace.” His finger dangled, hand-sewn and cotton stuffed, an ornament of the original Naval Crest. “I’ll put it on our tree at home.”

“You could put it on the tree here for now,” Grace suggested, brightly.

“I don’t think-“ Steve started.

“That’s a marvelous idea,” Mrs. William’s interrupted, looking as pleased by her granddaughter’s smile as Steve's taken aback surprise. “You’re family, now, Steve, aren’t you?”

Danny squeezed his leg, and Steve stood up, never more aware, of how every ornament hanging had its own owner, own story of every part of the William’s History. Including him.


	23. While I Tell of Yuletide Treasures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Christmas Eve, in the quiet late hours  
>  **Song:** _Deck the Halls_  
>  **Year** The First (and every other)

“…and then, before we eat, everyone shares their favorite Christmas memory,” Danny continued on, sure Steve wasn’t listening. Even if he’d drug Danny into the twin bed, all octopus arms, saying _Stay_ , and, then, _What happens tomorrow?_

“You’ll have to pick something.”

“You,” was a sleep-heavy murmur, lips brushing against his neck.

“A memory, not a person,” Danny said, exasperatedly fond. “Like Grace and my mom making that pie.”

“Still you.” Soft voice, nearly gone. “Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Arbor Day—“

“Arbor Day?”

“October, Tuesday, Friday. Every day. Still you,” trailed off, as Steve slipped away, into slow, even breaths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that one, as _my twelfth day of Jersey_ prompt, this is Amanda/Wanderlustlover, signing-off. 
> 
> My thanks to Tumblr Secret Santa for inspiring me with this idea, and to Laura, who indulged it, prompted me and fell in love with all of this right beside me, and to all of you commenters, who have made this a giddy, exciting ride and interaction for twelve days. It has been a great pleasure and privilege.
> 
>  
> 
> (Don't forget to come back for Alemara's last prompt of the entire collection tonight! <3)


	24. then will you tell me, you'll never more roam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** In the quiet before Christmas morning.  
>  **Song:** _Please Come Home For Christmas_  
>  **Year:** Every single one.

Steve’s already awake. Solid against Danny’s back in the dim, cold winter dawn, island-warm under blankets, like Hawaii tucked some sun into their suitcases. It’s dark, gritty-eyed early; Steve’s hand on his stomach, thumb sliding back, forth, and it’s not the worst Christmas morning Danny’s ever had.

Sheets making soft sounds as he rolls over. Bellies pressing together, legs tangling. Danny’s hair everywhere, Steve’s smile a struck match burning when Danny’s arm drapes over him, tugs him possessively stuffed-animal close, nuzzling sleepy at warm neck, eyes shutting, stubbornly holding on.

“Lazy,” teased into Danny’s ear. “Danno, wake up. It’s Christmas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it, folks. It has been my sincere pleasure working on this, and finally getting to blame Amanda for something, instead of the other way around. Thanks so much to the fabulous and talented Amanda, for prompts and falling in love with the boys and their world and family right along with me, to everyone who has read and enjoyed, and to our wonderful commenters, who make me want to hug them right through my computer screen.
> 
> Laura/Alemara signing off. And remember to keep that Christmas spirit all year long.


End file.
